Bleeding Victims
by HippogriffRider77
Summary: Jeremy Gilbert's sister sent him away for his own safety, and he ended up in Rosewood. Aria just broke up with her boyfriend who she thought she would be with forever. They both find out that they're broken, and can help each other if they learn how to trust somebody new. The only question is...will they?


**A/N: I feel the need to warn you before you start reading this that I'm going to try to stay as true as both of the series as I can, but I might end up making both Aria and Jeremy, and the other characters talk a little differently than they probably would otherwise. **

Aria Montgomery walked through Rosewood Square, passing the Apple-Rose Grill, and Lucky Leon's, and several other restaurants and stores on her way to school. She checked her phone, and realized that she was already fifteen minutes late to meeting up with one of her best friends, Hanna Marin. Almost immediately after checking the time, she began to regret telling her younger brother, Mike that he could borrow her car to go to lacrosse practice. As hard as Aria tried, she couldn't understand why so many of her school's teams insisted on having practice in the morning. The way she saw it, Rosewood High shouldn't make already exhausted teenagers exercise early in the morning, when most of the kids she went to school with barley had enough energy to stay awake in class most days.

Eventually, she turned the corner onto Main Street, and she could see her high school, large and looming in the distance. She took a deep breath and put her phone back into her purse, walking across the street and up the sidewalk to the front steps of her school.

"Aria, where were you? We were supposed to meet up here after first period!" Hanna Marin asked, jumping up from one of the benches that sat near the steps.

"Hanna, it was _before_first period that we were supposed to be meeting up. Damn, am I really that late?" Aria asked, checking the clock tower on the church across the street, "Oh, no, we missed English!"

Hanna raised her eyebrows, smirking, "Did you need to be in English to get an extra assignment from Fitz?"

"Hanna, okay come on, don't joke. Things have been…tense between me and Ezra lately, and I needed to ask him if we could meet up tonight to talk."

"Is 'meet up' some student-teacher code for…meet up?"

"Hanna, seriously, this isn't funny! It might really be too late this time."

Aria and Hanna began to climb the steps to the high school, and Hanna laughed.

"Sorry," she said, "but you can't say that things aren't different now. I could deal when you told us that you two were together, but now he's a dad and he's seeing you, _and _he's a substitute teacher? Come on, Aria, that's too much, even for one of us."

Aria sighed, "I know; believe me, I know."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, Hanna," Aria shrugged, turning into the hallway and walking towards her locker. "Do you think I need to break up with him?"

Aria began turning the lock on her locker, and Hanna's eyes widened.

"Are you really sure you want to?"

"Well, I don't _want _to, but it's starting to look like the best thing to do. We knew it would be difficult when we started seeing each other, but…"

"But then you didn't know that Ezra was a dad?"

"Yeah," Aria whispered, pulling a book out of her locker, "Hanna, what am I supposed to do? If I stay with him through all of this, I graduate high school and go to college as a step-parent, but if I break up with him…"

"Then you hurt just as much. Hey, who is that?" Hanna said, looking over Aria's shoulder, down the hall.

Aria looked behind her and saw who Hanna was looking at; she had never seen him before, so she assumed he was a new student. He looked like he was in their grade, and was tall with dark hair and a muscular build.

"Hanna, who is that?" Aria asked, turning back around as he started to walk down the hall.

Hanna shrugged, but then walked out into the hallway in his direction.

"Hanna!" Aria whisper-yelled.

Hanna waved her off and walked up to the guy.

"Hi, I'm Hanna. Are you new?" Hanna asked, smiling, "Don't worry, I'm not hitting on you, I have a boyfriend."

Aria assumed that he would look uncomfortable, or at least confused, but he went along with the conversation as if it was normal.

"Hey, I'm Jeremy, it's nice to meet you," he told Hanna, "Yeah, it's my first day. Have any advice?"

"Sure, just stick to me and my friend Aria over there," Hanna looked behind her and pointed to Aria, who gave a tiny wave, feeling both awkward and embarrassed, "and you'll be fine."

Hanna led Jeremy over to where Aria was still standing at her locker and introduced them.

"Hanna," Aria said quietly, hoping Jeremy wouldn't hear her as he walked ahead of them, looking for his locker, "what are you doing?"

"I'm being friendly; you and the others are always saying that reaching out to others makes you a good person, so that's what I'm doing."

Aria sighed and shook her head, laughing, "This is not what Spencer and Emily meant, but it's a start."


End file.
